The present invention relates to a new and improved construction of a support guide arrangement, also referred to in the art as a roller apron framework, for a continuous casting installation and of the type having guide rolls and drive rolls, wherein the rolls associated with each strand path of travel are mounted in sections at traverses and the oppositely situated traverses are adjustable along a guide or guide arrangement by spindles as concerns their mutual spacing from one another and can be moved away from one another against resilient load limiters in the presence of overload.
The continuous casting art is already acquainted with arrangements employing support guides having rolls mounted at traverses or cross members. The traverses which are guided upon columns can be positionally adjusted by spindles in relation to stationary traverses. This mechanical adjustment device affords, in relation to the equally known adjustment by hydraulic cylinders against exchangeable stops, the advantage of infinite adjustability and independence from a hydraulic system.
Also belonging to part of the state of the art is particularly a roller apron or strand guide arrangement wherein two guide columns for an upper traverse are anchored at a stationary traverse. Arranged at the lower traverse are four bolts onto whose upper threaded portion there are screwed or threaded nuts mounted at the upper traverse and provided with a worm drive for adjusting the strand cross-sectional shape or format. The bolts are movably mounted at the lower traverse against overload by means of a package or set of plate springs. Measuring cells are arranged between the threaded part and the attachment part of the bolts.
This prior art roller apron has the drawback that irregular thermal expansions and non-symmetrical overload situations cause binding at the guides, bending of the bolts as well as leading to pronounced overload of individual rolls, since in this construction there is not provided any possibility for deviation of the traverse. A further drawback is that the worm drive of the adjustment nuts must be designed for overload situations, in order to be able to open the roller apron under load in the presence of disturbances.